SSANU calls for removal of NUC boss

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) at the weekend called for the removal of the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria University Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie, over his alleged role to stop funding of University Staff Schools by the Federal Government.

Placard bearing members of the union, as well as teachers of the University of Calabar Staff School recently embarked on a peaceful protest from the National Arts Theatre to the office of the Vice Chancellor of the institution against the proposed plan.

National President of SSANU, Comrade Samson Ugbokwe, said the move would throw thousands of workers out of employment prematurely in violation of the 2009 Federal Government/SSANU agreement.

Represented by the Vice President of the Eastern Zone, Dr. Leku Ador, he accused the NUC of working with other government agencies to introduce the new policy.

He said the since the NUC had initially claimed it was the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) that recommended the withdrawal of institutional funding for the schools, SSANU wondered what role the NUC played in advising the National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission against unilaterally recommending the breach of an item in an executed agreement, which the NUC not only provided the platform for its negotiation that lasted three years, but of which its Executive Secretary effectively and fully participated in.

The SSANU boss said the staff schools were established by statutes and workers duly employed by the Universities’ Councils.

He asked: “Why single out the Universities’ Staff Schools for discrimination when the Federal Government still funds the Navy, Army, Air force, Police Staff Schools,” adding, “It is a sadistic irony of great proportions that the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission can attempt to impugn an agreement which both the Commission, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labour, the State governments and state universities fully participated in its negotiation that lasted nearly three years before conclusion by a mere circular.

“These schools that the NUC and its cohorts are attempting to scarp have produced a crop of eminent Nigerians who form the nucleus of the human infrastructure driving Nigeria’s development. It is like attempting to scrap the Unity Schools!

“It is even worse in the case of the Universities Staff Schools where their sustainability is the product of a negotiated and collective bargaining. If it is truly the dawn of a new era in Nigeria, the government should distance itself from this impunity being cooked up by the NUC.”

In response to questions from reporters, Ador said if the Federal Government fails to listen to their entreaties, a grand rally would be organised in Abuja to register their displeasure after which the leadership of SSANU would meet to take a decision.